Offered Discount before Price increases

[alan_mc]

Trying to get my head around this. 

So I've been offered a ~£5 discount on my current Broadband Fee if I "upgrade" my current contract due to expire August.  However, if they take the £5 off, this will then be nullified by the March increases which are expected at 13-15%.

So I'll be paying more than what I had previously and now be locked into a new 2 year contract at still higher rate as opposed to seeing out the contract and either A) negotiating for a better deal with BT or B) going elsewhere with a competitor offering the same service for less.  I understand I'll be paying more for April to August by not taking the discount, but surely its better to wait and have other options on the table?

Please someone check my logic.

[ICB]

I agree with your logic. It ties in with my recent offer of an upgrade ahead of my

August termination date.  Maybe there will be another offer in due course to enter a new contract using a new Smart Hub 3 device. It would be nice to know when SH3 will be on offer so that we can plan ahead.

[Anonymous]

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@ICBwrote:

...Maybe there will be another offer in due course to enter a new contract using a new Smart Hub 3 device. It would be nice to know when SH3 will be on offer so that we can plan ahead.

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The latest rumours on the Smart Hub 3 (I say "rumour", but Mark is incredibly well sourced), is that it is expected to launch through EE in the first half of this year as part of the transition for standard retail consumers away from the BT brand.

A small minority of broadband and phone only customers are expected to stay on BT, so I suppose it may come to them, but it is most likely to be used as an incentive to switch.

@alan_mc - BT price increases are confirmed at 14.4% in March, personally I wouldn't be doing anything to recontract right now unless it was a mega deal that brought my costs down to the same or less than I pay now, after the increase is applied. Each to their own though.

[alan_mc]

So, after all this, I had taken the discount anyway.  Reduced my bill by £5, then BT hiked the price by inflation as communicated.  By chance, I looked at my offers on the 1st April, and there was one that took me back to the price I had with the fiver off, nullifying the rate increase 🙂  Crazy but welcome 

[ICB]

I received a price-reducing offer yesterday morning, when it wasn’t convenient for me to process the offer. I looked later but no offer was available.  Missed my chance!

[gosforth]

Not quite…

Offers keep changing almost every time, when I look there…

From “we don’t have any offers right now, call xxxxxx…” to lower price (as much as £10 down) for “best” offer, when essentially offer is same price, than I have now, just with new 24 months contract :))

Best offer I got, was on phone line, and it was (not specified further) £20 monthly discount on my FF900 Hallo 3+, which seems to be excellent offer… not quite, when You calculate, as to cancel contract might be cheaper option, especially when You get ‘new Customer” price elsewhere…

Best of the best was chap from Glasgow, who trying to tell me, as new customer offer was exactly same, as I have now, in terms of price, even, one could easily goes on website, pretend to be new customer and see, as actual price is in fact £30 less, for newbie, then I have, calculating into regional offers (even with add-ons like Hybrid connect, Complete Wifi etc). When I told him, as he lying to me, he abruptly hang on me :))) just to allow me grab chap from Newcastle, who acknowledged difference in price, and offered me said £20 discount…

Simple to say, BT has dynamic pricing, even on very same customer, depends of channel and level you got over…. 

[GarryJ]

I also received a price reducing offer, upgrade my service (Halo 3 +) to Halo 3 +!  The only difference was the digital phone service was now included, it did lessen my bill by nearly £10, but i did not have the time to do anything at that moment, checked again a little later and the price had changed to the exact same price i am paying now anyway, shame they do not give you much time (seemed less than a day) to consider their offer! Though i have to say i do have over a year left on my current contract so surprised i received any offers.

[JGS]

Hi,

I had something similar happen to me.

I'm in the middle of my contract. I ended up paying slightly more for the first new-price bill (only a couple of quid) than I expected. Turns out I had a £5 discount applied when I took out my contract. It looks like they removed the discount somewhere in the calculation process. My next bill looks like it will include the discount as expected, so I'm not too cross.

Without delving into any contracts, policies, regulations, or laws, I believe this is common practice among many service providers. I've seen most providers remove the discount before calculating a price increase, then reattach the discount afterwards. It would seem something similar is happening here.

It can be frustrating if we don't realise a discount was active in the first place when we take out a contract, and this can often lead us to feel like we're being robbed. However, I believe they are within their rights to base all calculations on the price without any discounts applied.

These days, I always see discounts as a 'favour', 'act of kindness', or 'helping hand' - something which goes beyond what they are obliged to provide. It would be nice if the whole discount thing was made obvious before entering a contract. Perhaps companies will make an effort to help customers understand this before committing to a contract. I know I'd appreciate it. 

Hope this helps 🙂